Group leader

Jacqueline Deschamps

Jacqueline Deschamps obtained her PhD in yeast genetics at the University of Brussels. After a postdoctoral stay in Brussels she did a second postdoc in the laboratory of Inder Verma at the Salk Institute in San Diego, California, studying the transcriptional regulation of the mouse c-fos proto-oncogene. She was then recruited by the Hubrecht Institute where she obtained a group leader position. After working on the regulation of the Hox genes in mouse EC and ES cells, she set up the transgenic facility in the institute and analyzed the regulation and the function of Hox and related genes using gain and loss of function approaches. Her group is still involved in studying the molecular mechanism of sequential activation of these fascinating genes during early mouse embryogenesis. They also recently uncovered a novel involvement of Hox and Cdx genes in embryonic tissue generation, in addition to the long recognized role of these genes in the acquisition of positional identity. They are dissecting the genetic underlying of this involvement and its impact on embryonic morphogenesis. They are characterizing tissue progenitors and their niche in the posterior embryonic growth zone in mutants compared to wild types. They also set out to unravel the downstream program of Cdx and Hox genes by mapping their interactions and those of other key transcription factors at work in axial elongation, with their genomic targets during embryogenesis.